the language I come from
has no mother
so what if I don’t have a mother
tongue that rolls off my lips
Arabic Hebrew English
never quite reaching my mouth
spoken over my head
I was the seed
rotting in the lucky
country
new roots words stresses
my mother had no idea
she was marrying
can you have a tongue
without a mother
my mother
never spoke to me
except to ask
for chamomile tea
a hot water bottle
or to turn the heater up
warm cold truths
the truth
mother’s tongue
is heavy
with metered mistakes
her mother lost
her Judeo-Arabic
son in the refugee camp pit
burying her tongue
with his small body
it’s no wonder
God has no mother
this world mouthed
into being
broken